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( N0 Modl.) I v I M. H. GLEASON.

GAME APPARATUS.

No. 480,662. 1 4 Patented Aug 9, 1892.,

UNITED STATES PATENT- OFFICE.

MARTIN H. GLEASON, OF FITCHBURG, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO JOHN K. GLEASON, OF SAME PLACE.

GAME APPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 480,662, dated August 9, 1892.

Application filed April 12, 1892.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, MARTIN H. GLEASON, of Fitchburg, county of Worcester, State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Game Apparatus, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like letters on the drawings representing like parts.

This invention has for its object the production of a novel game apparatus adapted for home amusement.

My apparatus consists of a board and a series of pins and balls adapted to be struck and rolled by a cue or equivalent device, the said board having one, or it may be more, convexed carom-cushions, upon which the ball to strike the pins must first be played. This board has attached to it suitable counters (shown as disks or washers) strung on a wire, every fifth disk being preferably of a different color to facilitate quick counting;

The figure of the drawing shows a gameboard embodying my invention preparatory to commencing a game of nine-pins.

The game board or table Ahas upright side and end walls or guards A A The bed A is covered with cloth, as at B, and has one or more convexed cushions, as 0, preferably of india-rubber, backed up by segments 0' of wood or other cheap material. I have shown two of these convexed cushions, one in each of two corners of the board, and I have left spaces between the segments and the side and end walls for the reception of balls 0.. The board at its end most remote from the convexed cushions is grooved transversely to leave a pocket A into which any ball having been. shot will enter and remain.

To save space on the drawing, I have shown but part of a'cuea'; butin practice there will be several cues with the apparatus, their length beingabout three feet.

To the ends of the board and, as shown, in the end walls, I have secured wires b b, on which I have placed a series of washers or buttons 1) b for the use of each player, the said washers being preferably ofv wood and every fifth one colored differently to aid in counting. The cloth will be stenoiled, marked, or spotted to designate the places where the nine-pins c 0 shall stand when the game Serial No. 428,788. (No model.)

of nine-pins is to be played on the board, the drawing showing the said pins all set. At the rear of the pins Ihave provided the board with a series of spots 01, on which the. pins may be set ifit is desired to make the game one of marksmanship.

Prior to my invention boards adaptedto be used as nine-pin alleys have been used; but no skill is required in rolling the balls directly at the pins. Totherefore make more of a game, one requiring thought and demanding attention and skill, I devised the convexed cushion, and then to complete the game devised as additional useful co-operative elements the pocket A and counters.

The game requires the same class of skill as is necessary to play billiards, and in the-game the ball must alwaysbe shot by the cue against the face of a convexed cushion, and thence it caroms directly upon a pin, and by skill the player may shoot his ball against a particular point in the oonvexed cushion and hit any particular ball which is in the range of the aimed shot.

I am aware that a cushion is in common use on billiard-tables; but never prior to my invention has a table or board having straight sides and ends ever been provided with a convexed cushion in one or more of its corners.

My improved apparatus makes a game of skill, not of more chance, and the convexed cushions, the cue being held by a skilled hand, enables the ball to be shot in any direction to range over any part of the field.

I have devised anumber of difierent games which may be played on my game apparatus byplacing the pins in different positions, or by using balls instead of pins, which will be reached by a carom-shot, some requiring the exercise of more skill than others, but which need not be described in this specification.

' The are of the face of the cushion will be calculated to correspond with the width and length of the board.

This invention is not shown for the pins 0, and instead of pins any objects may be used and constitute targets for the carom-balls.

-In Fig. 2, showing part of the under side of the board, f represents a foot composed of corrugated rubber, there being a like foot 9S limited to the shape near each corner of the board, said feet by 2. A board having straight side and end friction on the table on which the board rests guards and a convexed corner cushion atone preventing any accident-a1 slipping of the end, of a transverse pocket at the other end 1 board. of the board, substantially as described.

5 Having described my invention, what I In testimony whereof I have signed my claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters name to this specification in the presence of 'Patent, istwo subscribing witnesses.

1. The combination, with the board having MARTIN II. GLEASON. straight side and end guards, of a convexed Witnesses: Io cushion in one corner of the board and adapt- JOHN K. GLEASON,

ed to be struck by a. ball, substantially as de- PATRICK F. GLEASON,

scribed. CHAS. S. HAYDEN. 

